Bennett-Payart: 1-1 : CIK-FIA European Superkart Championship Magny-Cours (F) 04-06/05/2007

An impressive field of 60 karts on the starting grid, nine nationalities represented among the drivers (including Spain, which was present for the first time at this level), five different drivers sharing the two podiums, four engines of different makes in the top four of Race 1 and a near photo finish arrival in Race 2: the 2007 edition of the European Superkart Championship took a convincing start on the circuit of Magny-Cours (F).Caught unawares by Gavin Bennett in the first qualifying practice session, Damien Payart sat on pole-position at the end of the second session ahead of Malcolm Crowe and Stefan Malm. Bennett was one of the few drivers who could not improve his performance in the second session because of an engine problem. He nonetheless started with a good fourth place ahead of Paul Kennings. Race 1 was action-packed. The “Adelaide” hairpin corner, reputed to be tricky, was fatal for the Swede Stefan Malm who could not avoid a collision and retired there and then. Malcolm Crowe also lost a great deal in that corner: a spin (further to a contact with Bennett) forced him to restart from the back of the field but he made a spectacular recovery from 49th to 7th place. Although Antoine Lacoste was the first leader of the race, Payart managed to go faster and took the lead. Three laps from the finish however his engine seized, which in fact was also the case of Antoine Lacoste. Gavin Bennett then took the lead and dashed to his very first win in a European Championship event. Sweden’s Michael Warn, who finished twice on the podium in 2006, and the German Jürgen Reinke made up a rather unexpected and original top three. The list of engines which landed the first four places was also varied as an FPE won ahead of a Yamaha, a BRC and a PVP! The track was still wet for the drivers in Race 2. The duel between Payart and Bennett was so intense that the two drivers overtook each other many times in the final laps and crossed the finishing line separated by only two tenths of a second! Coming third, Kennings climbed on the first European podium of his career and the young Emmanuel Vinualès, who came fifth, distinguished himself by a recovery from 41st to 5th place, accompanied by a very clear-cut lap record in Race 2. Tipped as being among the favourites, Malm and Mark Owens went through a dark weekend: after retiring from Race 1, the former was betrayed by his steering in Race 2 and had to give up again while Owens was the victim of an unmanageable transmission cog-wheel in Race 2.